Can Exercises Help With Overactive Bladder?

I Have to Go Now

I Have to Go Now

People with overactive bladder experience a sudden and
urgent need to urinate, or may lose urine involuntarily. Having to go
often—more than every three hours in a 24-hour period—is another symptom of
this disorder. Read more to learn about the role of exercise in helping to
manage this stressful and potentially embarrassing condition.

Muscles Working Overtime

Muscles Working Overtime

In the normal process of urination, your brain receives a
signal when your bladder starts to fill. This message tells you it’s time to
go. In people with overactive bladder, the bladder muscles that ordinarily
contract to let urine out begin to contract involuntarily. These involuntary
contractions create the sudden need to dash to the restroom.

Pelvic Floor Exercises

Pelvic Floor Exercises

Pelvic floor, or Kegel, exercises boost the strength of your
bladder and sphincter muscles and can help you gain some control over random
bladder muscle contractions. If you’re new to doing these exercises,
identifying the correct set of muscles can be tricky at first. With practice,
you’ll recognize the correct muscle groups and learn how to strengthen them.

Stop Urine in Midstream, But Not Often

Stop Urine in Midstream, But Not Often

To find your pelvic floor muscles, stop urine in midstream.
The muscles you contract to do this are your pelvic floor muscles. These are
the muscles you’ll tense when you do Kegel exercises. Once you have located the
correct muscles, do Kegel exercises after you empty your bladder. Don’t stop
urine in midstream as regularly—this can further weaken your bladder muscles.

Relax and Strengthen Your Bladder

Relax and Strengthen Your Bladder

While lying down with your knees bent, contract your pelvic
floor muscles. Stay alert, so you don’t contract muscles in your stomach, legs,
or rear. Hold the pelvic floor contraction to the count of five, and then relax
for another count to five. Try the contact-and-relax routine a few more times.
As your muscles gain strength, increase your contraction time gradually until
you can hold to the count of 10. Work your way up to three sets of Kegel
exercises a day. As you get stronger,
you can do Kegel exercises anywhere, anytime, and in a sitting, standing, or
reclining position.

Check Yourself

Check Yourself

Kegel exercises work only when done correctly. Rest your
hand on your stomach as you do them. If your belly moves, you’re contracting
your abdominal muscles. Unclench your hands and listen to your breathing so
you’re not tempted to hold it. Slow, deep breaths help you isolate the right
muscles, rather than tightening your face, neck, or chest. Finally, if you
think you’re squeezing your buttocks instead of your pelvic floor muscles, the Urology Care
Foundation suggests sitting in front of a mirror. If your body goes up and
down slightly as you do your Kegel exercises, you’re using your buttock
muscles.

Patience Required

Patience Required

There won’t be instant results with Kegel exercises,
unfortunately. Just as it takes time for any exercise to produce a whittled
waist or toned arms, Kegel exercises take about six
to eight weeks to produce changes in your ability to hold your urine. Stay
with it and don’t be discouraged if it takes some time to reach the 10-second
count.

Get Help If You Need It

Get Help If You Need It

If you’re unsure whether you’re doing your Kegel exercises
right, enlist your doctor’s help. Through observation or biofeedback, he or she
can let you know if your technique is correct or if you need some coaching.
With biofeedback, a probe in your vagina or rectum measures your muscle
contraction and relaxation, and displays it on a computer monitor. The visual
confirms whether you have isolated the right muscles.

Exercise to Stay in a Normal Weight Range

Exercise to Stay in a Normal Weight Range

Carrying extra weight around may aggravate symptoms of
overactive bladder. Along with Kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles used
for urination, aim for a regular daily exercise you enjoy, such as walking,
dancing, bicycling, or gardening. Taking off excess pounds may help lessen
overactive bladder symptoms.

Frequent urination is the need to urinate more than you normally would. The urge can strike suddenly and can cause you to lose control of your bladder. It can feel uncomfortable, like your bladder is extremely full.

In IC, scarring of the bladder causes the bladder to stiffen, decreasing the amount of urine the bladder can comfortably hold. IC is sometimes called bladder pain syndrome, or frequency-urgency-dysuria syndrome.

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